ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Intertemporal portfolio choice

Okay kiddo, let's talk about intertemporal portfolio choice!

Have you ever heard of a piggy bank? It's a place where you can store your money and save it for later. Well, grown-ups also have a type of piggy bank called a portfolio. A portfolio is a collection of investments like stocks, bonds, and cash that grown-ups use to save and make money.

Now, imagine you want to save and invest your money for a long time, like when you grow up and go to college or buy a house. Intertemporal portfolio choice means you need to decide how to invest your money over time to reach your goals.

To make this decision, you have to think about three things: how much risk you’re willing to take, the expected return on your investments, and how long you plan to save your money. Just like how you would think about how much money to put in your piggy bank to reach a goal in the future.

One option for intertemporal portfolio choice is to invest in risky assets, like stocks, that have a chance of making lots of money in the future, but also have a chance of losing money. Another option is to invest in safer assets, like bonds or cash, that have a lower chance of making big returns but are more stable.

It's important to remember that the amount of risk and potential returns changes over time. For example, when you're young and have a long time to save, you might want to invest in riskier assets because you have more time to wait out any losses. When you're closer to your goal, you might switch to safer assets to protect your money.

So intertemporal portfolio choice means thinking about investing your money in a well-thought-out, long-term plan that takes into account the amount of risk you’re willing to take, the expected return on your investments, and how long you plan to save your money. Just like how you carefully choose how much to put in your piggy bank now to reach your goal later on.